Shooters take aim as annual PITA Oregon State Shoot kicks off

SUNNY STRADER/ Fred Coulson of Carson City, Calif., takes aim as the targets are launched. Targets typically come out of the trap house, a large box in front of the shooters, at 60 miles per hour and soar about 50 yards away from the shooter.

Nothing will keep Charles Curtis from trap shooting - not a downpour of rain and certainly not old age.

"I sure didn't do very good today," he says, shrugging his shoulders. "When you get older you just don't shoot as good as you used to. But I don't have to break targets to have fun. I'll keep shooting as long as I can lift a gun."

Curtis was one of an estimated 300 competitors at the Portland Gun Club for the four-day shoot. Although the event is held annually, this year was the first at the Portland club since 1968.

This year, the Portland club celebrates its 100th anniversary. The club is considered the oldest west of the Mississippi and is the only gun club within the Portland city limits. Established in 1907, it has always been at the same location on South East 117th Avenue.

"It's always been a great place to go," says Moe Braggs , 79, who has been a member of the Portland Gun Club since 1962. "When the club first started it was a bunch of businessmen out there. Everyone was really dressed up, in suits and ties with white button-down shirts on."

Braggs says health issues and a trip to his grandson's graduation ceremony might keep him from shooting this weekend, but he's still out there watching. That's just the spirit of the club, he says.

"We all just have fun being here," Braggs says. "Even if it's raining cats and dogs, we're all still out here sitting in the clubhouse, telling stories and enjoying each other's company."

Despite the talk of gun control sweeping the country, the issue doesn't seem to be a topic of conversation at the event. Everyone is out to enjoy the sport.

Curtis, the oldest active member in the PITA, drove in from Eugene, Ore., with partner Virginia Bonser , 81, for the weekend. But Bonser wasn't just along for the ride. She is the oldest active woman shooter in the PITA. The pair travels to different events every two weeks, heading everywhere from Arizona to California to Vancouver, British Columbia.

"The neatest thing about trap shooting is the wonderful people you meet and the friends you make," Bonser says. "It's nice to go south to see the friends we didn't see up here."

In fact, Curtis and Bonser met through trap shooting. The two were part of the same club, Cottage Grove Gun Club in Creswell, Ore. They got into the sport separately though.

Bonser started shooting ducks with her late husband and two sons when she was in her 50s. Then she turned to trap shooting.

"When I was out one time I met a lady – the first lady I ever met that trapped," Bonser says. "Then our husbands took us to a club to try it there. It just evolved from there."

Curtis's introduction into the sport was similar: he started with live birds then moved to the clay targets. He turned out to be a sharp shooter, and eventually moved back to the 27-yard line -- the line where the most skilled shooter is placed.

"I remember in one of the first competitions I was in I made 75 out of 100 straight. That's when I knew I was going to get into this," Curtis says. "I started shooting out at the Portland Gun Club 50 years ago. I was 43 then."

Under rainy skies Thursday, radio show host Lars Larson kicked off the weekend shoot at 8 a.m. with a brief speech, followed by a few words from Kelly Whitlock, president of the Portland Gun Club.

The weekend competition called for standard trap shooting singles, doubles and handicap events intermixed with a Harry Abernethy memorial shooting competition, a Friday night dinner and a Saturday night concert. The competitors were a mix of PITA members and American Trap Association members.

"There are people of all ages out here this weekend," Whitlock says. "A lot of people think of shooting and think a bunch of old men, but really it's a mix of all ages. Younger kids, women, anyone."

World champion shooter Lesley Goddard , 55, made the journey from Lincoln, England for the event. Goddard represented England at Clay Target Shooting since 1992 and retired from the sport in 2009 after winning the English Open Universal Trench Championships.

"I just started shooting again after retirement because everyone kept nagging at me that I should keep shooting," Goddard says, chuckling. "I just shoot for pleasure now though. I shoot about 600 targets a month now, but before I was shooting 30,000 per year. It's been about three years now that I've been visiting Oregon."

Others traveled to Oregon from Washington, California, Idaho, Arizona, Montana and Colorado. The gun club lot was filled with RVs parked for the weekend stay.

"You keep seeing a lot of the same people the more of these events you go to," Curtis says. "It's a real community. Everyone gets to know each other."